Tales for Young and Old eBook

and it was also a great means of preventing contagion.
This year the disorder was particularly severe, and
the ill feeling towards Monsieur de Marne rose to
a great height. He sent large assistance to the
village, and endeavoured to mitigate the sufferings
of the poor people; but he still heard it said as
he passed along: “There goes Monsieur de
Marne, who has come to restore some small part of the
hospital land.” If he visited a sick person,
and inquired after his health, he would say:
“I thank you, sir; it is tolerable; but I should
have recovered much sooner at the hospital.”
Overwhelmed with remorse, uneasiness, and fatigue,
he took the disorder and died, chiefly of grief, for
having at any time forgotten that a hospital is filled
with individuals, as you just now forgot that a forest
is composed of separate trees.’

‘Ah, papa! how melancholy that was,’ said
Eugene, who had listened with the greatest attention.

‘My son,’ said Monsieur D’Ambly,
’when you grow up, you will see even worse consequences
arise from that want of reflection which makes us
regardless of everything that does not come under our
own observation, so that when objects are too great
for us to see their details, we think nothing about
them.’

At that moment Eugene, in a musing mood, took up a
stone, as was his custom, to throw among a flight
of sparrows which had alighted near him: he paused.
‘Papa,’ said he, ’I will not throw
a stone at those sparrows, for I remember how sorry
I feel when any person torments my sister’s
canary bird, and when I see the poor little thing trying
to save itself in every corner of the cage: it
seems to me as if each of those sparrows, were I to
frighten them, would feel just as my sister’s
bird does.’

’That is precisely, my son, what you ought to
do if ever you are entrusted with the interests of
a number of persons at once; and that you may be tempted
to forget that the regiment you command, or the department
you have to manage, is composed of men like yourself;
and you should always put yourself, or those you love,
in the place of each of them.’

They now reached home, and passed close by the lime-tree.

‘Ah!’ said Eugene, ‘I must take
my leave of you.’

‘No,’ said Monsieur D’Ambly smiling,
’it shall remain, provided you promise to remember,
every time you look at it, that each tree in a forest
is entitled to as much respect as your lime, and that
in an assemblage of persons, whatever may be their
denomination, each person’s interest is of as
much importance as your own.’